Earley and Hedman Testify Before Congressional Hearing on Flint Water Crisis

Former Flint Emergency Manager Darnell Earley and former Environmental Protection Agency official Susan Hedman were in the hot seat Tuesday during a congressional hearing on the Flint water crisis.

During testimony, Earley told the U.S. House Oversight Committee that it wasn’t his decision to switch Flint’s water source to the Flint River, which is blamed for spiking lead levels in the drinking water.

Earley says it was a decision made by an earlier emergency manager and the city council.

But former Flint Mayor Dayne Walling, who also testified, says the city council’s decision was to support a new Lake Huron pipeline and did not include using the Flint River as an interim source.

Former EPA Region 5 Administrator Susan Hedman was asked whether the agency should have acted when it learned about the lead issues.

She says they did. Hedman says they reached out to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality to begin using corrosion control.

But Marc Edwards, the professor from Virginia Tech that discovered high lead levels in Flint, says Hedman did nothing to protect the children of Flint.

Governor Rick Snyder is set to testify before the committee Thursday.